News

While the Dreamland Theater remains dark and dormant while its new owners begin the permitting process to revive the historic building, its back parking lot off Easy Street will be a hub of activity this summer.

Starting with the first edition of the Nantucket Farmers and Artisans Market this Saturday, the Dreamland Foundation, which purchased the theater in 2007, will kick off a series of events in the asphalt lot in the rear of the theater.

In addition to the weekly market, the back lot will host the Nantucket Comedy Festival at the end of July, and other fundraising events, according to Dreamland Foundation director Patty Roggeveen.

“We’ll try to use the building as much as we can,” Roggeveen said.

While the foundation had hoped to screen movies against the back wall of the historic building during the summer, Roggeveen said that plan had been nixed due to the logistical challenges of putting on such an event.

Still, the back lot, which had generally been used as a private parking lot by the previous owners, will certainly take on a different atmosphere under the Dreamland Foundation.
Roggeveen said that due to the demand for parking at the lot from downtown residents and business owners who had previously parked there, the foundation will still offer private parking in the lot during the week. She said that the rate would be $1,500 for the summer season, a rate which was similar to what users had paid in the past.

The Farmers and Artisans Market, sponsored by Sustainable Nantucket, will be held in the parking lot every Saturday through August from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

The Dreamland Foundation, created by a group of Nantucket summer residents including New York financier Philippe Laffont; hedge-fund manager and Boston Celtics part-owner James Pallotta; and former Starwood Hotels and Resorts president and CEO Barry Sternlicht, purchased the theater from former owner Haim Zahavi for $9.8 million in late 2007. The deal was orchestrated by another summer resident, Peter Palandjian, chairman and chief executive officer of Intercontinental Developers, which is now developing the project.

The group recently unveiled its conceptual plans for the historic theater during a meeting with town officials in May, revealing their intention to “dismantle” the existing structure and build a new two-theater complex with community meeting spaces and decks facing Easy and Oak streets.